Shadowplay offers a short and delightful taste of experimental Toronto Theatre
If you had the power to choose, would you grow up? This is the main theme that Shadowplay is centred around. The Humber Theatre presents Third Panel’s Shadowplay: The Peter Pan Variations, a theatrical piece developed by Production and Performance students. Inspired by Peter Pan, this production combines acting, dancing, singing all through the eyes of young children.
I read in the program that the play began without a script, something that was apparent as I watched this performance. It felt very disjointed but the actors were mostly able to make it work since they were portraying children, who by nature are flighty, volatile, indecisive and fragile. Through costumes and hair and makeup, each actor really did look like a child, something that generally proves difficult for a group of 20-somethings to do. And most actors nailed the childish voices and mannerisms that used to come second nature to all of us. Continue reading Shadowplay: The Peter Pan Variations (Humber Theatre Third Panel)→
Heart in Hand Theatre’sFool For Love is another adept piece from Toronto’s Playwright Project
Fool For Love is one of seven plays in the 2013 Playwright Project. Seven plays written by Sam Sheppard are performed at seven different venues throughout the city by seven different theatre companies on seven nights.
Fool For Love is the story of May and Eddie, two people in a seemingly doomed on-again, off-again relationship. Eddie has returned to May after a protracted absence. A quiet desperation looms in the air of May’s motel room at the beginning then quickly shifts to anger, tension, jealousy and hurt as the two hash out their grievances. These two lovers are bad for each other and their relationship always ends up the same, with Eddie leaving and May starting over.
Glorious performances in When the World was Green, The Underground Theatre’s piece in Toronto’s Playwright Project
The most memorable scenes in When the World was Green (part of the Playwright Project) take place in near-darkness. An Interviewer (Shannon Taylor) floats on the surface of a river, coursing quickly and deftly around obstacles, determined to reach her destination. And an Old Man (David Fox), framed by a thin strip of twilight, slips closer to oblivion every time he breathes.
As with most two-handers, the story scarcely matters: the murder-and-cookery plot is interesting, but it serves primarily to give us these two characters. The real meat of this culinary play is in the performance.
Alex McCooeye’s adapts a Sam Shepard story for theatre with Saving Fats, part of Toronto’s Playwright Project
Seven theatre companies, seven plays, seven venues, seven days, one playwright, this is The Playwright Project. The playwright? Sam Shepard.
The plays rotate through the venues nightly. The venues, in various neighbourhoods across the city, aren’t traditional theatres; they’re restaurants, bars, and cafes. I saw Saving Fats at a restaurant on the Danforth. It’s such a great idea. You can see seven different plays in a week right in your neighbourhood. I suppose if you fall in love with a play you could follow it around town.
Enter Laughing is a play by Joseph Stein. It is based on the semi-autobiography of entertainment icon Carl Reiner. It is a heartwarming coming of age play, now onstage at The Toronto Centre for the Arts . It’s a great comedy with great acting. It is as universal and relevant as ever.
Set in New York City in the 1930s, Enter Laughing debuted on Broadway in 1963. It certainly adheres to the classic, clean comedy style of a bygone era. It’s hard not to call it “good, clean fun”. It is the story of David Kolowitz, who is trying to break into show business while juggling three girlfriends.
